Not so digital Britain after all, as Brits lag behind in broadband services

The UK is falling behind the rest of Europe in ICT (information and communication technology), according to a study of 154 countries.

The International Telecommunications Union, the leading United Nations agency for information and communication technology issues, uses two measures to establish where different countries fall in relation to each other as far as ICT goes. The ICT Development Index combines a number of key indicators such as access, skills, households with a computer, and literacy levels; while the ICT Price Basket compares pricing for similar services in each country.

And the conclusion is that the UK is lagging behind some of our European cousins, languishing in 10th place on the scale of most active users of ICT - something which the ITU is putting largely down to cost. Unsurprisingly, the countries at the top of the list were mostly Scandinavian, with Sweden coming top, followed closely by Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway.

The ITU also expects mobile broadband to be a factor in bringing better ICT to many countries. It said: "Given the rapid spread of IMT-2000/3G mobile cellular networks in many countries, including in the developing world, there is a clear potential for mobile broadband to connect more and more people, and at higher speed."